


Waves on the Sand

by Firecadet



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Ahsoka Tano is a Mess., Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Clone Wars Final Season Non-Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Order 66 did not happen, Post-Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Realistic aftermath of Clone Wars, The Jedi Order stopped Palpatine, Vacation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:41:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24093763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firecadet/pseuds/Firecadet
Summary: The Clone Wars are over. The Galaxy is starting to rebuild.For Ahsoka Tano, former Jedi and GAR Commander, the real consequences are still hitting home. Three years on the frontlines and countless losses weigh heavily on her mind. She can't outrun them, any more.Fortunately, she isn't alone. Her boyfriend, Senator Lux Bonteri, is there for her. And he's booked them a holiday on a tropical resort planet. With nothing but sun, sea, palm trees and sand, Maika is the perfect place to enable Ahsoka to overcome her demons.Not that anything in their lives tends to go to plan.Alternate Universe, where Order 66 did not happen, and the Jedi are starting to rebuild. Some scenes imply intimacy, no lemon. Trigger warnings will be appended to relevant chapters.
Relationships: Lux Bonteri/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35





	1. Welcome to Maika

From her seat on a standard commercial passenger transport, Ahsoka looked out over the planet below her. Even from orbit, crystal blue seas, broad white beaches and lush, green jungle could clearly be distinguished.

Maikaʻikahonua, commonly referred to as Maika, was one of the most significant planetary tourism destinations in the Core. An entire planet of shallow, warm seas, wide beaches and jungle, it might have been purposefully designed for the role. Dressed in a blue tank top, knee length denim shorts, and carrying a small rucksack, Ahsoka fitted in with most of the passengers on the ship. Young, perky, presumably looking for a good time. As part of her cover as a tourist, she wasn’t wearing shoes, just a pair of flat, laced sandals. Admittedly, not looking like a Jedi was beneficial if you were planning on a beach vacation with a friend.

Her commlink had chimed before she even reached planetary orbit, with a hotel name and room number. Opening it up again, she read the details.

“Hotel Maika, Suite 283. Party name of Bonteri. Looking forward to seeing you, XX.”

She grinned as she looked at the text-only message again. It’d been a few weeks since she last spent time alone with Lux. A stay this far from Coruscant had so many possibilities for the two of them to continue exploring.

Re-entry was one of her secret joys. The bright, orange glow, dimmed by the photoreactive transparisteel that made up the windows, reminded her of a warm campfire. Despite the speed of re-entry, the transport’s inertial compensator was able to almost completely damp out the turbulence that would have thrown the passengers around.

On landing, Ahsoka collected her luggage out of the overhead locker, and headed for the steps, slinging her bag over her shoulder. A couple of paces from the door, she could feel the air temperature rising above the one the shuttle’s environmental control system maintained. The rolling warmth told her that it was anything but cool outside, and the sounds of bird analogues spoke of rolling waves and warm sand.

Walking down the steps was like walking into an oven, and she found it hard to breathe for a few moments, as her body adjusted to the temperatures. Without thinking about it, she drew on the Force, creating a layer of cooler air next to her skin. The relief was immediate. A short walk across the duracrate landing pad took her into the terminal, and the cool blast of air conditioning.

With no contraband to worry about, Ahsoka wandered through the ‘nothing to declare’ lane. No-one looked twice at the young togruta, who fitted in with the rest of the multi-species medley of young humanoids in summer clothes. A small, furry animal, presumably a local species, stood in the middle of the corridor, attached to its handler via a short lead. With a shrill trill, it pulled forward, attaching itself to a pair of humans in expensive looking clothes. Without looking back, Ahsoka felt them being led away, resigned to whatever would happen next.

Passport control was the next hurdle. Given that she was no longer any sort of Jedi, going through on what the Jedi called ‘The Robe and Saber Passport’ wasn’t an option. That meant standing in a queue, waiting for people ahead of her to show their passports to the six, very overworked, staff. Her hearing and other senses were not helpful, either. Perhaps five people behind her, a human or near-human boy, a couple years older than her was clearly ogling her rear end.

Ahsoka was surprised by how nervous that made her feel. Dressed in Jedi robes, she inevitably got attention, but it wasn’t usually staring. It appeared that being a humanoid female in moderately revealing clothing had a different outcome. Admittedly, Lux _had_ tried to flirt with her, even when she was clearly a Jedi.

Shuffling forward with the rest of the queue, Ahsoka kept one mental eye on what was going on around her. Her observer was off-putting, from her perception of him. Big, perhaps a head taller than everyone around him, with a force presence that stunk of self-satisfaction. She’d encountered the sort before, when visiting an expensive university or the senate.

She closed her third eye when she realised that he was fantasising about… her. She called on a meditation technique, so that she could block out the mental image he’d accidentally transmitted to her. Even Jedi hadn’t yet developed a way of bleaching such images altogether. A small tear rolled down her face as one of the worst memories she had rose like a sando-aqua monster, instead of the calming memory she sought. For an instant, she could smell ozone, burnt flesh… and hear a dopplering scream.

When she actually reached the desk, holding her passport, the passport officer took perhaps twenty seconds to read it and confirm she was a republic citizen. A glance confirmed that her face vaguely matched her holo and she was waved through with her mind still skittering on ice. She couldn’t push the memory away.

Ahsoka allowed her emotions to propel her forward, walking past the bright, almost garish hoardings, on route to the main exit. She scanned them as she walked, for the distraction, smiling at advertisements for bars, clubs and hotels. All featured bright primary colours, attractive twi’leks in bikinis and prices for ‘all you can drink’ nights.

As a Jedi, she had become used to travelling light. As a result, her rucksack contained three folded changes of clothes, a bottle of sanigel, a flannel, and nothing else. On the bottom of the rucksack, her lightsaber hilts were clipped into a purpose-built mounting, disguised as part of the bag. They’d arrived, unannounced, in Lux’s in-tray, and he’d passed them onto her, once she agreed that they felt right in her hands.

The main reason for her trip necessitated a small pouch of credit chips, a bikini, and a bottle of bacta gel. The gel contained a small amount of the healing agent mixed with anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory substances and was intended for use on topical injuries. Admittedly she knew from personal experience that it was also effective in treating sunburned montrals.

Knowing that a passenger who’d successfully negotiated passport control breaking into a trot would likely result in a chat with security, she kept to a fast walk. She was relying on the sound of her sandals to allow her to ‘see’ behind her, by echolocating using her montrals. All they showed her was other passengers, gratefully heading for their hotels. She welcomed the chance to focus her mind on her surroundings rather than the moment of her life she’d seen while standing in the queue.

After stepping out onto the main concourse, Ahsoka headed straight for a taxi. Following her feelings, she strolled along the rank, before selecting a small, slightly scruffy cab with a female driver. The lethian twi’lek behind the controls looked gratefully at Ahsoka.

“Where to, Ma’am?” She asked, as Ahsoka pulled open the door.

“Hotel Maika.” Ahsoka responded with a smile.

“Right you are.” The twi’lek replied, kicking the repulsorlifts out of hover and into forward cruise.

“What’s the best place to get a meal?” She asked. “Something like a steak.”

“You’ll want the Pakena.” Her driver responded. “I’d suggest the rib-eye.” (1)

Without looking around, Ahsoka pressed a small button on the bottom of her commlink, powering the device on. A quick flicker of her fingers put her through to Lux’s commlink.

“Hi, ‘Soka.” Lux said, picking up his commlink with a speed that suggested he’d had it sitting next to his chair. “Surf’s good. And I’m sure you’ve noticed that the sun is shining.”

“You fell off a surfboard last time you tried to use one.” Ahsoka replied, grinning teasingly, allowing the banter to displace everything else. “I seem to remember the instructor was very impressed.” The image of Lux at apogee, surfboard trailing behind him like a varactyl tail was enough to banish everything else to the back of her mind.

“I’m sure you noticed, if even I thought he looked good.” Lux replied with a broader grin. “If it wasn’t for my charming personality, I’m sure I’d have been getting cold at night soon enough.”

“You wish, vegetables.” Ahsoka knew it wasn’t mature, but she stuck her tongue out at Lux, with a broad grin on her face. “Just because you haven’t got as much energy as me.”

Ahead of her, Ahsoka could feel the smile on her driver’s face. Listening to a pair of lovers bicker amicably was putting the twi’lek at ease.

It wasn’t more than fifteen minutes before there was a tell-tale crunching from underneath the speeder. Ahsoka rang off, grinning at the teasing she’d given and received. The slightly archaic white gravel driveway was being compressed by the repulsorlift, and it wasn’t long before Ahsoka was looking at a vast entryway, constructed from smooth marble and sandstone. A red carpet, secured by runners, ran down the steps from the double doors.

Ahsoka clambered out, checking the meter, and handing her driver a few credits more than it showed, with a smile. Tipping someone was a good way to buy amnesia, she’d learnt. It wouldn’t stop the twi’lek telling the police about her if asked, but it’d help with simple curiosity. Not that she expected any, but it’d almost become a habit at some point, and it never hurt to be generous. If nothing else, it’d help avoid the media, the only downside she’d found about being close to Lux. A young senator, apparently dating a former Jedi, was irresistible to certain segments of the press.

Taking two steps so that she was on the carpet, Ahsoka stamped her feet to avoid treading gravel inside, as the taxi pulled away, heading back to the spaceport. Squaring her shoulders, she strolled up the carpet, drawing on her reserves of confidence not to slightly gawk at the surroundings.

A reception desk built from a rich brown wood sat in front of the entry way, flanked by massive glass windows. The view through the windows showcased the spectacular bay beyond, complete with lifeguards, rolling surf and beach umbrellas. Whatever Lux was intending, this was clearly a step up from their ‘normal’ fare of luxury hotels. At least she was less likely to be reminded of older memories, in a place like this.

She strolled over to the reception desk, aware that the teller would simply see a togruta in average street clothes. She hoped she’d be accepted with a cheap backpack and clothing that was good quality, but not designer. The question of if they thought she was old enough to drink was another matter.

“Good afternoon.” The human woman replied. The subtext wasn’t ‘Now go away or I’m calling security’, much to Ahsoka’s relief, but ‘please justify your presence here’.

“My name is Ahsoka Tano.” She replied, meekly. “I’m staying with Senator Bonteri, in room 283.”

The human called it up, treating Ahsoka to a Look. Then the look disappeared, and she switched into customer service mode.

“Ah, yes, Miss Tano.” She said, with a genuine-looking smile. “The senator said to expect you.”

The togruta was handed a check-in form, which she filled out one handed.

“I’m sure you aren’t the sort of person I need to tell this, but we have a zero-tolerance policy for drugs on the premises.” The receptionist said. Inside, Ahsoka cracked a grin. Using her real name had been a slight risk, but she’d been stereotyped as an adolescent. That meant that unless someone asked about her and gave a lot of information, she wouldn’t be quickly identified, and would be quickly forgotten, as long as she avoided drawing attention to herself.

She was handed an electronic key and led to a lift. She input the room number, swiped her key card in the slot and the lift took her straight to the door.

Stepping through the wide wooden door, she looked out of the gloriously wide windows, and out at the almost perfectly cobalt blue sea. Ahead of her, wearing a slightly obnoxious orange shirt decorated with white palm leaves, was Lux. He was sitting near the window, in a high-backed wicker chair. A glass with an umbrella sat on the low wicker table next to him, along with a snow-white porcelain plate. Next to it, a tall, wide glass jug held a light red fluid, with chunks of fruit and ice floating in it.

Ahsoka spent a moment drinking the scene in, as she crossed the room, moving as soundlessly as possible in her soft sandals. Then she was sitting in his lap, curled against him, and kissing him, almost greedily.

His arms closed around her shoulders as he returned the kiss. It was a timeless moment, before oxygen requirements forced their lips apart. Ahsoka grinned.

“Any trouble on the way in?” She asked.

“I’m sure the customs officer wanted to take a closer look at my bags.” He replied. “Not that there’s anything wrong with the contents, of course.”

“You mean other than the high explosives, the political manifesto and the ski mask, not to mention all the blaster rifles?” Ahsoka teased, broadly smiling as she enjoyed the smell of her boyfriend for the first time in a month and a half.

“Well, I suppose they wouldn’t be entirely legitimate. Not, of course, that a Jedi would be above such tactics when it came to political manoeuvres.”

“Hey, at least I walked through customs without using a diplomatic passport.” She commented, stealing another kiss. “I’ve got to be better at subterfuge than you.”

“You’re a Jedi.” Lux replied. “That means you’re untrustworthy, sneaky, mean, and entirely devoted to the Republic.”

“Oh, am I now?” Ahsoka replied. “Mr Separatist-turned-freedom-fighter-turned-politician is as white as the driven snow, is he?”

“Well, he does have his very own Jedi keeping him on the straight and narrow.” Lux commented, as his hands changed position slightly, with intent.

Ahsoka glanced at the ceiling, before jabbing him in the ribs. He grinned and moved his hands to where she liked them.

There was no real conscious thought after that. Ahsoka was aware of the coolness of the marble floor as she slipped out of her sandals. She growled slightly at the sensation of the cool air on her stomach as Lux stripped away her tank top. Her hands had been busy, guiding the wooden buttons of his shirt out of their holes, and then the bed was under her knees.

Momentum took her backwards onto the wonderfully soft, cool surface, and most thought disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

Ten enjoyably exhausting minutes later, Ahsoka was sitting with Lux, snuggled together in the hot tub on their balcony. Ahead of them, over the ocean, the sky was a glorious orange, banded with reds and golds, as the sun dipped slowly below the horizon. The only sounds were the rush of the waves over the sand of the beach and the cries of the local avians.

Ahsoka wasn’t entirely surprised by the way Lux was holding her, tightly and possessively. She knew he had flashbacks sometimes. She did too.

_A crumbling cliff…_

_An outstretched hand…_

_A blaster shot…_

_Sudden pain breaking her focus…_

_A scream…_

_A sprawled body on the ground…_

Ahsoka curled herself against Lux, tucking her head against his shoulder as the moments ran through her mind again. Every medical assessment she’d undergone had told her there was nothing wrong with her left shoulder. It still hurt regularly, as if burnt.

Especially when she looked at Lux, in their unguarded moments together.

Sometimes, late at night, she found herself going over those moments again and again _. Could I have realised the turret was active? Could I have somehow deflected the shot? Could I have caught Steela before she hit the ground?_

Lux seemed to realise what Ahsoka was feeling. His left arm rose from her shoulders, and he gently stroked the back of her third lekku with it.

“’Soka…” he said, soothingly. “You did everything you could.”

“No!” She shot back, suddenly angry at Lux. “I could have focused through the pain! I shouldn’t have lost my grip! You should be holding her here, looking at the sunset! Not me!”

“Ahsoka…” Lux repeated, more calmly than before. “You. Didn’t. Fail. Steela. You. Didn’t. Fail. Me.”

The response was a togruta pressing herself against him, sobbing brokenly. Whatever she was saying was incoherent, lost behind the snot, sobs and raw emotion.

Lux just held her. She might be a Jedi, but Lux had learnt about what that actually meant when it came to mental healthcare. It meant meditation, coming to peace with your emotions. Letting go of your attachments to those events.

That wasn’t something that was going to ever help her PTSD. Meditation took her back into that moment. It meant feeling that sense of failure chopping through her again. Smelling her own burnt flesh. Hearing the dull, awful sound of Steela hitting the ground at nearly 70 miles per hour…

She whimpered and pressed herself harder against Lux. Something inside her was generating a mental image of Lux falling away from her outstretched hand in that moment. She felt him tilting her head upwards.

Then he kissed her, assertively. The sensations took over, and she gave into them, gratefully, until her body screamed at her that it needed oxygen.

Lux just held her, gently.

“I love you, Ahsoka Tano.” He whispered, his mouth close to the mid-point between her lekku and montrals, where a human’s ear would have been. “I forgive you. I know Steela would forgive you.”

He knew better than to leave her alone when she was in this mood.

The last time he’d made that mistake, he’d gone to get them both a cup of caf from a dispenser two minutes from his office. He’d returned five minutes later to a senate guard standing outside the door.

“Senator Bonteri.” The clone had said. “I’m sorry, but someone has gotten into your office and is threatening to jump from the window.”

Lux remembered the heart-pounding hour that had followed, watching on a display next to the caf machine. Ahsoka had jumped, in the end. By then, a Jedi had been waiting, and caught her, bringing her down gently. That’d been the worst of her episodes he’d ever encountered, and he knew it had to be the turning point in her treatment.

She’d clung to him with all of her strength on the way to hospital, before being discharged after it was discovered she was a former Jedi.

He just held her, listening to her, and keeping up a calming litany of soft words and gentle thoughts.

Eventually, Ahsoka, still clinging to him like a limpet, Lux managed to restore normal service. Ahsoka’s head came back up, her stubby lekku unwound from her neck, and the spark came back into her eyes.

Deep down, he knew the reason why it never happened when she was alone. He knew that being around him was part of the trigger. He loved her too much to stop being around her, and she loved him to the same degree. He knew, as well, she was slowly coming to terms with her failure.

“I’m sorry.” She repeated again, tears welling up as Lux kissed her hard, using that to keep Ahsoka’s mind on him, and the moment. He resisted the urge to haul her towards the bed and distract her that way as they climbed out of the jacuzzi, and crossed back into their hotel room.

“Ahsoka, you’ve got nothing to apologise for.” He repeated, softly and calmingly, wrapping the nude togruta in his arms. Ahsoka curled against him, testing his resolve as he felt his body respond to the lithe body and smooth damp skin.

He’d felt his universe had ended in those moments. Seeing Steela dead in their moment of victory, her body broken at the foot of a cliff…

It’d taken him weeks of almost daily counselling from the best therapists on Onderon to get past that feeling.

It’d taken Ahsoka to pull him out of the pit he’d been in, even with that support.

And he knew that she was still one step away from doing something incredibly stupid.

Then he growled, in his throat, and twisted Ahsoka into an armlock, both arms twisted almost as far as her shoulder blades. She didn’t try to stop him.

She squirmed, though, as he marched her over to the window and pressed her against the glass, looking into their room.

“Ahsoka Tano.” He whispered, lips almost touching her third lekku. “You are the most pig-headedly stubborn person I have ever had the fortune to know and love.” He dotted a kiss against the top of her lekku, and then just leant against her, pinning her there.

After about ten minutes, he realised that Ahsoka really didn’t care. Somehow, through some miracle of engineering, the glass was staying chilled. The position he had her in wasn’t uncomfortable. He remembered her showing off, once, how she could put her hands behind her head while holding her thumbs in the opposite hand. It wasn’t unusual, except for the fact she’d started with her hands against the small of her back.

He let go, leaving a disappointed Ahsoka turning around, mischief in her eyes.

“Ahsoka, our reservation is in an hour.” He interjected, shortly before he was hit in the stomach by her right shoulder. The tackle would have won her plaudits from a thugball coach, and left them both on the floor, Ahsoka straddling her boyfriend.

They didn’t say anything else.

Neither of them needed words in those moments.

Afterwards, Ahsoka shot into the shower, practically turning into an orange blur, topped by blue and white stripes. Lux gathered his sanigel from where it had ended up; somehow, the bottle had migrated to the top of the wardrobe.

Under the running water, Ahsoka allowed all of her tensions to drop away. With the sensations of a shower to focus on, she was able to meditate, for a few moments.

After coating herself in sanigel, and washing it off, Ahsoka clambered out, and wrapped herself in a towel. The fabric was sinfully soft and carried the warmth of the towel rail with it. The warmth was a comfort as she stepped out of the bathroom onto the marble tile of the bedroom floor. Lux went into the bathroom behind her, with a brief kiss as they passed.

Glancing around, she didn’t take long to spot his shirt in her colours. Her underclothes were summoned from their respective resting places with an outstretched finger. She completed the transformation with a turquoise skirt, shorter at the back than the front and patterned in a lighter shade of turquoise.

She pulled the shirt on, ignoring the loose fit. It smelt like Lux. It was light, but it still… was nice. She didn’t even think about make-up. That was something she associated with shock collars.

Then she perched herself on the chair Lux had occupied, applying herself to the jug sitting on the table next to it. The liquid was definitely fruit punch, she noticed. And it tasted nice, as long as she avoided the indigestible chunks of fruit.

Lux came out of the shower to find her sprawled back in the chair, grinning broadly.

He just grinned as well, before turning away from her, and digging out a fresh shirt, this time in red, with white flowers forming a pattern. He completed his assemble with a pair of tan cargo shorts.

Then he bowed, to Ahsoka, extending a hand.

“If my lady would take my hand, our chariot awaits.” He said, prompting a childish tongue from Ahsoka, before she exited the chair. Smoothly, the togruta took her boyfriend’s hand, grinning as he raised it to his face, and pressed a kiss to the back of it.

The pair stepped into the lift, hand in hand, as it carried them smoothly to reception.

Ahsoka was gobsmacked when she saw the speeder Lux had rented for their first meal out. Five metres long, the craft was a deep, glorious racing green. Silver trim drew out the shape of the panels, showing the near-perfect curves. A Rolls-Martine Spectre, she realised. It was probably worth more than the shuttle she’d arrived on.

When the door slid back, the seat it revealed was a semi-circle of cream leather, with restraint belts that would allow them to sit opposite or together. Ahsoka pulled Lux into the vehicle’s centre of gravity, and just snuggled into him. Around her, she could see what looked like whole acres of polished wroshyr wood.

The ride made her previous trip feel like it’d been over a battlefield covered in craters. Silken smooth, with inertial compensators removing all sense of motion, it was like travelling in a dream.

When the speeder crunched to a halt outside of a restaurant, Ahsoka barely realised they’d arrived until the door slid open silently. Ahead of her, she could see another red carpet, attended by… she grinned at the incongruous sight of a wookiee in a suit. Next to him, a rutian Twi’lek was holding a datapad.

“Senator Bonteri and party.” Lux said, smoothly climbing out of the vehicle. With a dimpled smile that Ahsoka felt vaguely offended by, the twi’lek bowed to Lux, before leading them to their table.

The chair felt like someone had built it out of repulsorlift cushions, when Ahsoka sunk into it. It was perfectly supportive, and sinfully comfortable. Looking around the room, she actually felt guilty about eating in such surroundings.

The twi’lek she’d taken a dislike to returned, carrying two small wicker baskets of bread. One was placed in front of Lux, while the other was laid down in front of Ahsoka’s left hand. A short sniff confirmed that it was protein ‘bread’ in her basket, while Lux had the genuine wheat-product.

A songsteel platter carried butter that smelt like it’d come straight from the churn, and sat between them, along with a selection of olives, cheeses and preserved meats.

They ate with a will, as each dish came, perfectly presented on alderaannian porcelain, and irresistibly flavoursome. Three courses in, Ahsoka couldn’t help asking their server a question.

“Where’s the menu?” she asked, her montral markings standing out slightly with embarrassment.

“There isn’t one.” The twi’lek replied. “Every menu is based around the species of the diner.”

That explained why every dish had spoken to something deep inside Ahsoka, and why they were getting different dishes. The drink menu was similarly designed, with each course coming with a drink. Everything was set off perfectly by the cool sea breeze from the terrace.

It was an environment that was perfect for blocking out her memories.

Which was why the sight of another party arriving at a nearby table hit her like a crashing Lartie.

The sight of furry, fan-shaped ears, tan and brown fur and the sound of a painfully recognisable voice caused her head to twist to one side faster than a point defence turret.

Then she whimpered, almost inaudibly, in her throat, at the sight of five zygerrians, sitting down just a few metres away. They weren’t as bad as a lot of her memories, but remembering how lost she’d felt, caged, alone and collared, not knowing where her master was…

She didn’t have a flashback. But she did reach out and grab Lux’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, feedback is welcomed and encouraged.


	3. Chapter 3

After a few minutes, Lux managed to turn Ahsoka's attention back to their meal. Although he could tell she was monitoring the zygerrians behind her, she was paying him enough attention that he could relax.

The final dish of the tasting menu was a gloriously rich cheesecake. Lux received a fruit medley that seemed to contain every fruit in the galaxy and allow him to taste each one. Ahsoka was presented with a chocolate cheesecake with enough chocolaty flavour that her toes curled.

Ahsoka glared slightly at their server when she returned, once again aiming a dimpled smile at Lux.

"Would you like a cheeseboard?" She asked, ignoring the glare. Inside, though, Ahsoka could feel how much she'd just hurt the twi'lek. The worst thing was being unable to apologise.

"We'll have the bill." Lux replied, with a glance at Ahsoka.

"Certainly." The server responded.

Once she'd gone, Lux turned a look onto Ahsoka. "'Soka... stop being so jealous." He said, levelly. That made the rebuke sting more.

When their server returned, Ahsoka made sure to smile at her, and was astonished by the way that it lifted her spirits. The bill was shockingly excessive to Ahsoka. Four hundred credits was four times her Jedi monthly allowance. Lux didn't even blink as he handed over a credit chip Ahsoka hadn't seen before.

"Do you work with the Jedi Order a lot?" Their server asked, as the payment machine contacted the issuing branch via the holonet, burbling away to itself.

"No." Lux replied. "We're looking to in the near future, though."

Ahsoka's proverbial ears pricked up at that. She began planning her interrogation strategy. Whatever Lux was up to... she wanted to know. 'Mischief' seemed to be something that followed her boyfriend around the galaxy.

As they left the restaurant, the same luxury speeder that had deposited them drew up without a sound. Ahsoka allowed herself to be assisted inside.

Admittedly, Lux playing chivalrous male attendee made her want to punch him, but she could feel that he actually cared. Which meant she made the decision about their seating on the way back.

Pulling Lux in after her, Ahsoka dragged him to the centre of the seats, so that they were snuggled together in the speeder. Her boyfriend's scent was interesting, she decided, with her head resting on his shoulder. He smelt of anticipation, good food, bacon aftershave and an herbal sanigel. The scent was, she decided, justification for an offensive operation of her own. Pressing herself against her boyfriend, Ahsoka rubbed herself up and down, like an oversized cat. She could feel the way Lux's hormones were responding through the Force. Predictably, he didn't let her get away with it for long. Wrapping an arm around the togruta's thin shoulders, Lux applied enough pressure to hold in her in place, while his other arm captured her hands.

It was something he found utterly disconcerting about the togruta. He'd once had to cut off a wetsuit she'd got lodged on her montrals when she started to panic. But when it was him or someone she trusted; she didn't mind being held still. Clothing, or someone she didn’t trust, turned her into a ball of panicked aggression.

With her suitably contained, Lux gently kissed her left montral, running an arm down her back.

"Later, 'Soka." He said quietly in her ear. "We can't get to the good bit in a limo."

Ahsoka giggled. It was a sound Lux liked. Knowing that she felt relaxed enough to giggle gave him warm fuzzies inside. "I'm sure the driver would get a cup of caf if we asked him to." She replied, snuggling against her human. “Particularly if we gave him the credits.”

"No." Lux retorted. "We are not having sex in a limo paid for by charitable donations."

"What?" Ahsoka asked. "Lux?" She shrank away from him slightly, eyes going wider.

"Ahsoka, you know as well as me that you've been dumped alone to cope with everything." He didn't say anything more. "Onderon remembers your actions."

Somehow it seemed to be the wrong words. Ahsoka pulled away from him, before just slumping against her restraint belt in tears. Lux could see the way she was suddenly protecting her left shoulder, with her arms almost reaching out in front of her.

Looking at what had been an orange ball of mischievous sex drive a minute earlier, he shuddered. Then he placed an arm around her shoulders. Not possessing her or anything else. Just holding her, softly, while she sobbed. He focused on projecting calm emotions

After a few minutes, she seemed to surface.

"Why?" She almost whispered. "Why?"

"Because people you've never met care about you, Ahsoka." He said, gently. "Because you helped liberate their planet. Because you helped liberate them."

"I..." Ahsoka pressed herself against Lux.

"You have an entire planet who'd do anything for you." Lux said.

"Dance the can-can with a gundark?" Ahsoka said, giggling. "Sign up for rancor wrestling classes?"

"You know full well what I meant, you despotic imperialist tyrant." Lux responded as he tweaked the tip of her left lekku. "They sold tunics, bags, fake montrals, temporary tattoos..."

Ahsoka looked at Lux with large pleading eyes. "Please tell me you're not kidding?" She said.

"I'm not." Lux told her. "You've probably sold more merchandise on Onderon than Master Skywalker sells."

"Please tell me no-one put my markings on a swimsuit." Ahsoka said.

Lux didn't respond. Ahsoka's montrals turned a rather vivid blue.

"When you jumped out of my window..." Lux said, gently. "You made it into the news reports. People saw those on Onderon. They heard the experts talking about you having been on the frontlines for three years. They remembered you."

"Why?" Ahsoka asked.

"Because you matter." Lux replied. "Because when you're being yourself, you protect everyone. You... failed once. They don't want you to give up. I don’t want you to give in."

Ahsoka snuggled against Lux. It wasn't the sexually possessive snuggle of a few minutes before. It was her snuggle when she just wanted the reassurance of his body.

He guided her across the atrium of their hotel when they arrived. Once they were on their way to their room, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and kissed her, firmly. Ahsoka wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and they staggered through the door while unwrapping each other. Smooth skin caught the silver moonlight reflecting off of the calm sea, revealing defined muscle and sinuous curves pressed together. Ahsoka growled at the way Lux's hair looked against the moonlight, before they finally made it back to their bed, and landed together on top of the covers.

The next morning, the pair woke up when the sun shone in through the curtains. Ahsoka was curled close to her boyfriend, who had an arm holding her close around her shoulders. The view over the foot of the bed was typically spectacular and showed a vast swathe of white sand and cobalt blue sea. Ahsoka could also see large waves rolling onto the beach in a welter of white spray.

“Lux…” she asked, hopefully. “Did you hire us some boards?” One of their previous holidays had been to a resort with surfing facilities. Ahsoka had enjoyed herself, and watching Lux fall off his surfboard.

“So you can stare at the instructor’s arms and chest again?” Lux retorted. “Or were you hoping for a repeat of me ending up upside down?”

Ahsoka grinned at him, using an expression she’d learnt from her master. Lux winced. That grin was usually associated with Ahsoka taking risks she _really_ shouldn’t have.

“And no, they don’t rent hang gliders, aquaspeeders or aerofoils.” Lux said. Ahsoka seemed to be in a mood he’d encountered before. It was the opposite to her PTSD fugue, but he actually thought it was more dangerous to her. On one occasion he remembered with a wince, she’d hired an airspeeder, and promptly taken off down the triple black diamond stunt course. She hadn’t let anyone show her the controls, and, predictably, had taken it at full throttle.

To his surprise (not to mention the terrified salesman’s) she’d returned about an hour later, practically bouncing off of the walls with adrenaline.

Surfboards, in his opinion, were something she probably couldn’t come to _too_ much grief on.

Turfing her out of the bed, Lux turned over, just in time to get a hand on his water glass and stop it taking flight. Ahsoka giggled as she bolted through to the shower, knowing full well that Lux would take revenge.

Emptying out a jug, after checking it was made of transpariplast, Lux headed over to the room’s integrated minibar. An ice machine sat on the surface. With a smile that would have put Ahsoka in mind of a particularly sadistic Cad Bane, he filled it to the brim, noticing that it was filling with slush. He topped it up from the water fountain, before sneaking into the bathroom.

Ahsoka, of course, was waiting in ambush, having felt the intent suffusing Lux’s presence. The ambush consisted of a shower set to maximum cold, answered almost instantly by a wave of slush. Lux wasted no time in following up the momentary advantage over his girlfriend, lunging forward in a thugball tackle. Ahsoka tried to turn it into a throw, but Lux wrapped his arms around her torso. They ended up in a Force-cushioned landing, both covered in cold water. Without releasing the pin, Lux captured a cooperative Ahsoka’s arms, and kissed her rather thoroughly. His knee pressed down on her legs, and she cooperated with a grin.

After ten minutes or so, Ahsoka clambered back into the shower. Lux joined her a few moments later, although he kept his contribution to rubbing her sanigel where she, apparently, couldn’t quite reach. She returned the favour, running her fingers through his hair.

She was slightly more surprised when Lux opened the wardrobe to reveal a pair of wetsuits. Although they were lightweight, they still were still a matt grey. Ahsoka’s had clearly been designed for a togruta, as it was patterned with geometric shapes, all of which looked like various togruta facial markings she’d seen over the years. It also had an enlarged neck seal.

Lux had a plain grey wetsuit of his own, although Ahsoka’s montral patterns became slightly more pronounced when she saw him in it. It definitely flattered her boyfriend. Looking down, she could see that the sight of her in a skin-tight nanoprene wetsuit agreed with him as well.

After a short clinch, the two headed out of their room, into the turbolift. The ride was smooth, with inertial compensators damping out the sensation of movement. Ahsoka was snuggled against Lux when the turbolift ground to a halt in the lobby.

The polished stone floor was smooth and cold under their feet as they walked through the lobby, barefoot. Lux looked around in surprise when he felt a small hand working its way into his. Ahsoka wasn't normally demonstrative in public. Even holding his hand, somehow, was slightly daring by her standards.

A short stroll turned cold stone to warm sand as the pair stepped onto the beach. Ahsoka blinked a couple of times, momentarily blinded by the sun reflecting off the sea and sand.

Lux pressed forward, towing her gently, before stopping next to a rack of surfboards. A typically Corellian invention, surfboards allowed showing off, the wearing of minimal male clothing and came with a risk of mishap. Ahsoka glared at the attendant as she was handed a 7ft board, while Lux was handed an eight-foot board.

Then she spotted what the waves were doing, and took off, towing her board behind her.

"Does she know what she's doing?" The attendant asked, watching Ahsoka's progress towards the water.

"She's surfed before." Lux replied, before following Ahsoka down the beach. The togruta had a significant head-start and was paddling out before Lux was halfway to the water.

Almost inevitably, she collected the first large wave she could.

Watching her surf back in, Lux grinned at the way she used some of her abilities to remain balanced on the wave. She stayed upright significantly longer than anyone who’d caught the wave managed. And then her board-tip buried itself into a sandbar in about a foot of water.

Ahsoka yelped as Isaac Newton took over. The board rose, suddenly catapulting her forwards like she'd been shot out of a cannon. She described a ballistic trajectory towards the shore, landing arms first in shallower water like a gymnast. When she didn't immediately pop up, Lux ran forwards, before her head popped out of the water. A number of onomatopoeia followed, as she expelled seawater and sand from her mouth and nose.

When she saw Lux, though, her eyes lit up. Twisting back to her feet, the togruta barrelled towards her boyfriend. When she was three feet away, Lux sidestepped her, caught her arm, and pinned her to the sand

"'Soka, what have I said about..."

He got no further because the togruta had squirmed like an eel, wrapping her legs around his waist in a display of flexibility that would have won her a galactic level gymnastics medal. With a twist of her hips, she attempted to throw him sideways. Unfortunately, she had no leverage. With a sigh, Lux put her in an arm lock. This was another behaviour he'd become increasingly familiar with. He wasn't sure if she wanted sex, or just to wrestle. Although from the fact that it usually happened when she was wet or muddy, he had a suspicion she was trying to make him those things as well.

He also had no idea why a normally rational togruta sometimes wanted to transfer those things. It seemed to just be part of her nature, along with mischief, random bursts of snippiness, and having the sex drive of a teenage humanoid. He almost wondered if it was because she was a togruta, but he`d never heard of such behaviour in other togruta.

After a few moments of battling sinuous strength and, well, Jedi determination, Ahsoka gave up, before striking like a crystal snake the instant he let his guard down. She lunged towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and just kissed him, locking in place like there was hard vacuum around them.

Lux winced internally, as even his human hearing captured the sounds of commlink camera 'shutters' clacking away. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that those images, of a Jedi clutching a senator like she was drowning, would cross the galaxy in hours. To his surprise, he didn`t resent it. Neither he nor Ahsoka had made a secret of their relationship. Even though he knew their picture, which he might have hoped would be private, would be everywhere, it didn't matter to him. He'd have preferred privacy, though at heart. And he knew Ahsoka would choose it in a heartbeat as well.

With a smoky glance at him from a pair of luminously blue eyes, Ahsoka reclaimed her surfboard. Tucking it under her arm, she allowed Lux to pick up his own, before racing him to the cobalt blue sea across the warm sand.


	4. Chapter 4

Perhaps an hour, or closer to two later, they returned their surfboards to the rental stand, and strolled back inside, casually holding hands. A couple of shutters clicked, but they ignored them. Lux lead the way through the marble-floored reception to a cluster of tables under a palm tree. Waiting for them at a reserved table were two elegant racks of plates. One rack featured baked products and preserved fruits, along with butter, while the other featured a wide variety of spiced, preserved meat and fish.

Despite her species, Ahsoka still enjoyed tea, and grinned when she saw a pair of bone china teacups waiting for them, with the associated materials that told her this was an ‘Afternoon Tea’.

The food was, as Ahsoka had expected from the smell, delicious. Each of the meat and fish products had a different, rich flavour. Lux’s scones and finger sandwiches were similarly luxurious, with melt-in-the-mouth scones, crisp cucumber sandwiches and baked-to-perfection dainties. The tea, served without milk, was near-perfect, with floral undertones and an aroma reminiscent of toast and honey.

They lingered over the tea, while waiting for whatever vehicle Lux had hired to arrive. Ahsoka’s eyebrow markings rose when she saw the same Rolls-Martine, complete with tuxedo-clad driver, rolling almost soundlessly up the gravel drive.

“How long did you hire that for?” Ahsoka asked, visualizing the value, adding in the driver, and then combining the two for a large number.

“The entire length of our stay.” Lux replied.

“Lux…” Ahsoka said, almost too calmly. “That must be costing a thousand credits a day.”

“It’s worth it.” Lux replied. “They’ve got one they’re willing to let you drive, Miss Wrecker of Starfighters.”

“That was one time!”

Lux raised an eyebrow. Ahsoka replied by vacuum-sealing her lips to his, before pulling him towards the luxury landspeeder. She bundled her boyfriend into the backseat, nearly bowling over the chauffer in the process. The man swiftly sidestepped the oncoming Jedi, in a way that seemed much too familiar to Ahsoka. She filed it to deal with later.

The landspeeder's seats were as sinfully comfortable as Ahsoka remembered, silken black leather providing the perfect level of support. It was like sitting in an anti-gravity field, except for the glorious sensation of the leather. To her guilty surprise, she realised that both of them were still wearing their wetsuits, despite feeling perfectly comfortable in the heat. With a press of a button, Lux opened a small compartment, which contained a pair of flat-heeled sandals, perfectly sized for Ahsoka's feet. She slipped them over her bare feet, before sitting back as Lux extracted a pair of his sandals.

With lush green jungle on one side of the road and cream sand bordered by cerulean sea on the other, the drive was beautiful. At one point, Ahsoka spotted a groundcar, with a rutian twi'lek standing next to it, commlink to her ear and irritation visible in her posture. Before she had time to pull over the speeder, a van pulled up, and then they swept around the next bend in the road and lost sight. There was a flicker of something on the outer fringes of her sphere of responsibility, before the moving speeder took her out of range of whatever she'd been picking up.

Their destination was one of the planet's wonders: A circle of stone heads, each weighing close to one hundred tons. They were carved in the shape of an unknown humanoid species, speculated to be the original inhabitants of the planet. Several scholars had posited species ranging from Celestials to the Rakata to the ancestors of the human species. What was known, however, was that they were carved from an igneous rock, had been on one headland for about twenty-five millennia, and were somehow protected from erosion by the shape of the cliff.

Clambering out of the luxury speeder, Ahsoka looked up at the nearest head, which seemed to stare down at the approach road with a stern face. The sand coloured rock was a form of granite, and made them, somehow, more threatening.

The other reason for Ahsoka's interest was Jedi writings in the archives. They told of how some of the heads had auras in the Force, and she was curious to experience them for herself. Somehow, the distractions and the change of scene had distracted the togruta from her problems.

"It's certainly something." Lux commented, stepping up behind her as she reached for the statue's flat nose. "It's older than the republic, isn't it?"

Ahsoka didn't quite know what to make of the statue's force signature. It felt to her like a stern gaze, admonishing a child's mischief. The sensation was un-nerving for the togruta Jedi. The statue was older than the republic, but it had a signature comparable to a Jedi teaching aid. Lux seemed entirely unaffected, as far as she could tell. Her montrals’ passive echolocation allowed her to know where he was, even with her eyes closed.

"Found something, 'Soka?" He asked, looking at the togruta curiously.

"It's stronger than I expected." Ahsoka replied. "It's thirty thousand years old, but..."

Lux nodded. "Let's see if the others are as strong." He said, gently taking hold of her hand. "I want to know what each of them feels like."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was about three hours later when they headed back to their hotel. One of the advantages of nanoprene was that it provided insulation from both the heat and the cold. The thin layers of a tropical wetsuit were enough for comfort without them boiling in the heat.

The dozens of statues had each borne their own signature, ranging from majesty to fear. Ahsoka had spent time drinking each and every one of them in, savouring the different flavours.

Their speeder was waiting for them, the cool interior a relief from the tropical heat. On their way back to the resort, Ahsoka noticed that the groundcar she'd noticed earlier was still parked up, almost exactly as she'd last seen it... including an ajar door.

"Stop!" She instructed the driver, some of the things she'd briefly felt flooding back. He pulled over immediately, before Ahsoka hesitated. Her lightsabers were in her hotel room. She was completely unarmed.

Lux just opened one of the storage compartments, before handing her a GAR fighting knife. He fished out what Ahsoka recognised as his shoulder rig, before pulling it over his wetsuit, checking the fit, and securing it in place.

Cautiously, they approached the apparently abandoned vehicle, looking it over carefully. There were what a holodrama would call 'signs of a struggle': an area of disturbed leaves and dirt. A handbag sat on the passenger seat.

"'Soka..." Lux said. "We're not going to keep this to ourselves, or tamper with the scene. We're going to go back to the car and call planetary security." By the time he'd finished speaking, though, Ahsoka had already clambered inside the car. Shaking his head, Lux pulled the gloves from his wetsuit back on. To his relief, Ahsoka didn't touch anything critical. Instead, she checked behind the sun visor for the keys, and clambered back out.

Lux wasted no time in pulling out his commlink and dialling the three-digit code that would put him through to planetary security.

"Emergency, which service?" a voice on the other end asked.

"Security." Lux replied.

"Transferring you now."

He waited for a moment.

"Police emergency." He heard.

"My name is Lux Bonteri, I'm the senator for Onderon, and I've just found an abandoned vehicle and signs of a struggle." Lux stated without preamble. "I'm near the statue park at Lehon point, on the approach from Kaliyo."

"Is anyone else with you?"

""My girlfriend and our driver." Lux responded, slightly more cagily than before. The question had put him almost instantly on guard, probably unjustly. Old habits died hard.

"Stay where you are and don't disturb the scene. We've got a unit responding immediately."

Lux nodded, before the connection was closed.

Within a couple of minutes, he could hear multiple sets of sirens, and it was less than five before a sleek airspeeder in a blue and white livery touched down at the side of the road. It disgorged a pair of humans in the local security uniform, who hurried over, carefully avoiding the area around the car.

"Detectives Poole and Bordey." One of them identified himself, while his female colleague began taking holoimages of the scene. "Why do you think this is a kidnapping?" The question wasn't confrontational in tone.

"My girlfriend saw a twi'lek next to the vehicle while we were going to the statue park. Another vehicle pulled alongside just before we lost sight around a bend. When we returned, the vehicle, with a handbag still in it, was still here. There's also disturbed ground next to the vehicle."

The information was noted down. Ahsoka was busy trying to keep a low profile. It wasn't that this wasn't a republic member world, but she didn't look much like a Jedi, and she hadn't declared that she was one. It is, however, somewhat difficult for a bright orange humanoid with structures on their head to blend in with a green jungle.

"Name?" The female detective asked, in a musical, almost rylothian accent.

"Ahsoka Tano." Ahsoka replied.

"Why are you on Maika?" She asked.

"I'm on holiday with my boyfriend." Ahsoka responded.

"I see." There was a smile. "And the Jedi Order knows you have a boyfriend?"

Ahsoka's lekku flicked slightly, in surprise.

"I'll put that down as a no." The statement was almost teasing. "Your boyfriend said you were the primary witness." She continued in a more business-like fashion. "What did you see?"

"I saw a rutian twi'lek standing next to an airspeeder, and I could sense her frustration. She was talking on her commlink, and then we went around the corner just after another vehicle stopped. I sensed something in the Force, but we were travelling too fast for me to discern what. When we came back, we saw it was still parked with the door ajar. We investigated, noticed a handbag, and I checked that the keys weren't present."

"What did you touch?" The detective asked.

"The door handle, the seat and the sun visor." Ahsoka replied.

Behind her, Lux was also giving a statement. After a couple more vans and a CSI team had arrived, they were ushered away from the scene. Clambering back into their luxury landspeeder, they cruised back to the hotel in silence, snuggled together. Ahsoka's head rested on Lux's shoulder, with her arm tucked behind his neck. Lux's left arm encircled the togruta completely.

When they got back to the hotel, Ahsoka waited for the turbolift doors to close, and started to peel herself out of the nanoprene wetsuit, folding it neatly on the floor. As was her habit, there wasn't anything underneath it. Lux gave it a few moments before pulling off his wetsuit, revealing that he was wearing a pair of trunks underneath.

Ashoka grinned as she peeled them off, before dragging her boyfriend through the door and to the bed.

After a couple of pleasant hours, mostly spent snuggled together, Lux and Ahsoka reluctantly got out of the luxuriously soft bed. It was less because they wanted to, and more because Ahsoka, used to running five miles every day on a treadmill aboard a republic cruiser, got restless. As enjoyable as their sex was, it was at too great an interval to provide the requisite levels of exercise for someone like her.

This time, she showered without incident, before heading for the hotel gym. Lux followed her through, before booting up his data terminal. Even a senator on holiday had work to do.

When Ahsoka returned from the gym, coated with sweat, Lux spun around, looking at her carefully. Although Ahsoka had complained about it on occasion, there'd been a couple of times, very early in their relationship, when she'd returned favouring limbs. How she'd injured herself, he'd never found out, but he'd told her off for it each time. This time, her eyes weren't entirely focused on him or anything else. He knew that look. Something had triggered a cascade of her less pleasant memories.

With long experience of Ahsoka's habits, he got out of his chair before she arrived, and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on the dip between her montrals. Running an arm up her back, he pulled her close and just held the togruta. Once she was ensconced in his arms, Ahsoka tucked her forehead into the gap between his neck and shoulder, and let out the tears, almost silently.

When she'd finally stopped crying, Ahsoka snuggled against Lux more determinedly, tightening her grip around his waist. A pair of water-filled blue eyes looked up into his, and she just held his gaze, seeking reassurance. He just smiled, tightening his own grip for reassurance.

"Someone burnt a plastoid water bottle." Ahsoka said, after a moment. "Then they burnt themselves retrieving it."

Lux winced. He knew what those smells meant to Ahsoka. They were scents from the battlefields she'd spent most of the last three years of her life on. "If you want to talk, 'Soka..." he let the offer trail off, knowing that the togruta would need all the reassurance he could give her.

The Clone Wars had ended in a whimper, rather than a final clashing roar of battle. On his way out of his office, the Supreme Chancellor had been alone in his private turbolift and collapsed. It'd been one of those things. An undetected brain aneurism had ruptured, and he'd stroked out between his office and the speeder park. By the time senate aides had realised what was going on, he'd been clinically dead for between five and seven minutes and suffered irreparable brain damage. Afterwards, his replacement had pushed a policy of rapprochement. The final treaty had been signed six months later.

Ahsoka had her own theories about what'd happened. Knowing that the Jedi Order's leading neurosurgeon had been out of the temple visiting an old friend in the senate tower... she wasn't a trained investigator, but she could join the dots. Particularly since there had been a number of ‘accidents’ that night, involving his entire inner circle. Falls from balconies, electrical malfunctions, choking on food, speeder collisions, and several heart attacks had featured.

There'd been no official enquiry, no investigation, and then peace had broken out.

The Jedi Order had taken stock. Having started the clone wars with tens of thousands of Jedi Knights, the Order's total strength was now barely more than a thousand knights and Masters. Even as capable as a fully trained Jedi Knight was, they weren't invincible. Thousands of Jedi had been killed in action, along with much of the next generation. Several military operations had devolved to the command of eleven-year-old children, who were the last Jedi alive. Even with the Order relaxing all limitations on training numbers, they were being forced to recall members of the Service corps. Anyone with a connection to the Force was being sought out and offered training.

Ahsoka had been on Coruscant when the news broke. The entire planet had devolved into a street party, and it hadn't been long before even Jedi were materialising in the crowd, only distinguished by their tunics. Even then, she hadn’t sought to re-join the Jedi Order. Not after everything that’d happened. Even with all the apologies, and time… she couldn’t forgive them.

After a few minutes curled in Lux's arms, Ahsoka came back to herself, and just enjoyed the snuggle.

"You're not going back to Coruscant." Lux said, firmly, when she looked into his eyes again.

"Why?" Ahsoka asked, almost too loudly.

"Because you need to get your head sorted." Lux said, frankly. "Ahsoka, we both know you need help."

"I'm fine." She shot back. "I don't need help."

Lux rolled his eyes slightly. Ahsoka noticed.

"Lux!" She snapped, suddenly angry. "I don't need help because there's nothing wrong with me. I'm not a kid, either. I'm almost the same age as you, and I'm a Jedi."

Then she was gone, storming out of the suite in her sweaty exercise clothes, only stopping to grab her cred stick and bag of dataries.

Lux didn't try to stop her. He liked his spine just the way it was, not the way it'd get left if she tried to put him through a wall. He also knew that she'd need space.

All he could do was hope that she wasn't going to do anything more Ahsoka-like than getting herself too drunk to walk. A drunken Ahsoka was slightly easier to handle than a sober one, as well. Even if there was then an inevitable hangover to treat the next morning.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for spiked drinks and sexual violence

When he didn't hear from her within minutes, Lux pulled one of his shirts back on, along with a pair of boardshorts, and headed down to reception.

"Have you seen..." He began.

"A very angry Togruta who likes to swear in Mandalorian?" The receptionist said. "She came through five minutes ago and borrowed one of the rental bikes. Lux winced. He'd expected her to head for the hotel bar, not take off on her own. Knowing his girlfriend, she was probably on her way to a dive bar, in a state of high dudgeon, and prepared to tell the world about her problems, at length. He didn't waste any time after that. Nodding his thanks, he hurried through, swiping his room key, and firing up a bike.

One of the many things he knew he'd never equal Ahsoka as was as a pilot, driver or helmsman. Instead, he cruised at the fastest speed he knew he could definitely control a speeder bike at, knowing that his best option was to find which bar she was in.

Given her prior experience, and having met several of her clones, he suspected she'd have headed for the dingiest, most run-down dive bar she could find. There was one difference, though, that he knew she hadn't considered for a second. There wouldn't be a battalion of clones on hand to protect her.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ahsoka jumped off the speeder bike she'd borrowed from the front of the hotel. Her room key had started the engine, so she supposed it was something acceptable for her to borrow. The side of her that encouraged risk taking steered her straight past a number of well-lit clubs, and into a dimly lit dive.

"Had a row with the boyfriend, darlin'?" the bartender asked, as Ahsoka stalked up to the bar and took possession of a barstool, ignoring the heavily tattooed swoop-biker who shot her a glare from next to the pool table.

"He's just.... argh..." Ahsoka spat. "He treats me like I need protecting from everything. Jet Juice, on the rocks, no lemon."

As the man reached under the bar, Ahsoka didn't notice the way he hesitated for a second, before coming back up with one of the bottles. "You sure you can handle it?" He asked.

"I'm not a kid." Ahsoka replied, before the cocktail was placed in front of her, and she slammed back half of it in one go, feeling the alcohol burn its way to her stomach. There was a very slight salty taste that wasn’t normally there, almost completely masked by the strong alcohol.

Slugging the rest back, she pushed the glass back towards the bartender, who refilled her drink. Even though Ahsoka was fairly light, she could usually handle two or three potent cocktails before starting to feel the effects.

For some reason, this one seemed to be hitting her harder and sooner than she expected.

And then it hit her.

 _I've been drugged_. She thought, staggering to her feet as she tossed perhaps a dozen credits on the bar, and staggered out of the bar, hoping she could find somewhere safe to sleep it off, already drawing on the Force to speed up the detoxification process.

She hadn't got more than a few steps up the street when an arm curled around her shoulders and led her away from the bar, and towards a nearby alleyway, shadowed by the setting sun.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Dropping his bike off next to another, identical model, Lux scanned the surrounding streets, which were full of pulsing music, humanoids in a wide variety of states of dress, intoxication and foreplay, and brightly lit.

He immediately ruled out that direction. Ahsoka didn't like throbbing bass music, as it made her feel like her head was inside the speaker. Another direction yielded a quieter street, several bars he wouldn't personally enter without a military escort...

And an orange togruta, clearly worse for wear, being led towards an alleyway by a large human. Her face tilted towards him for a moment, and he caught a flash of Ahsoka's facial markings. The human, he noticed to his disgust, had his hand looped around Ahsoka's shoulders and across her chest.

Reaching under his jacket, he hauled out his blaster, and flicked off the safety. With it safely extended in front of him, he stalked towards the alleyway, knowing exactly what he would find.

Inside, the well-built, blond human had pulled down his trousers, and was in the process of using an... unresisting... Ahsoka's sports bra to tie her hands behind her back. Ahsoka, for her part, was apparently out cold, with occasional small noises of discomfort being all she was producing.

Lux didn't waste any time. He raised his pistol, lining up the sights between the scumbag's shoulder blades, and paused, before switching the selector from kill to stun, then snapping off his shot. The concentric blue rings of a stun blast slammed into the man's shoulder blades, dropping him on top of Ahsoka.

With a growl, Lux hauled him off, roughly.

Before anything else could happen, there was a rather familiar descending 'Be-woot' from behind him, along with blue strobes. Glad he always kept his senatorial ID (or a copy of it at least) in a flat pocket, he held it up calmly, and turned to deal with the authorities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit heavier than the usual for this fic.


	6. Chapter 6

Ahsoka was pleasantly surprised when she woke up in a soft bed. Her last memory was being led towards an alleyway, too out of it to do more than register the opening.

And the hands. They’d been a shocking contrast to Lux’s hands. Lux’s hands were reverential, careful and teasing. These hands had been forceful, harsh and uncaring, taking without giving.

When the she opened her eyes, she looked around briefly. She was in a small, closed room, without the clinical feel of a hospital or the forced homeliness of a sexual assault clinic. There was a single picture on the wall of a wave crashing over a rock, on which a lighthouse stood. Taking in her surroundings more slowly, she noticed how luxurious the duvet was, and how calm the room felt. The softness of the fabric and bed left her feeling like she was floating in space. It took her several seconds to realise that she was completely and utterly naked.

The Force told her other things. Lux was sitting outside the room, nervously, but also with a very familiar tinge of resignation and frustration. The emotion reminded her of Skyguy, after she’d improvised a solution. There were several people with more official presences, their minds weighed down by their jobs. There were also a couple of presences that didn’t quite seem to make sense. They were nervous, worried and scared.

Glancing around, Ahsoka spotted a button, and poked it with the Force, enjoying the chance to be lazy. Lux hurried through the door almost immediately, holding a bag in one hand. With a grin, he pushed the door shut, and handed Ahsoka a set of garments she’d have sworn had ‘fallen out of the window’ of the senate tower.

Why she’d kept a set of Jedi robes was anyone’s guess. She didn’t know herself. They weren’t soft, they were practically wookie-sized, but they were the most comforting garment she had. Somewhere in her hindbrain, it appeared, she associated ‘safe, relaxed and happy’ with Jedi robes. Even if Master Bantha-Poodoo-For-Brains wore them.

Hauling them on, along with a sports bra and a pair of swimming shorts, Ahsoka glanced at Lux.

“Who’s outside?” She asked.

“Detectives Poole and Bordey are here to ask if you remember anything else about what you witnessed yesterday. They’re also the officers investigating the goon who…”

“tried to… me.” Ahsoka whispered. The sensations were mostly dulled by the drug she’d been dosed with. She still remembered the sense of utter helplessness as her attacker laid hands on her, and she realised she couldn’t think clearly enough to resist. It took moments before tears filled her eyes. Once, she’d have refused to cry, and insisted on bottling up her emotions. She’d have meditated on them, and ultimately, the trauma would have faded. Now she wasn’t really a Jedi, Ahsoka felt she was allowed to admit having emotions a lot more strongly.

Looking down at the most important being in his life, Lux saw the signs of her repressed past again. The situations the Clone Wars had placed her in, had, on the surface, fallen away. He knew some of the things she’d been through. Being handcuffed, tortured and held hostage. Being enslaved. Dozens of narrow escapes from death. He suspected that she’d come very close to being raped on at least one occasion. He’d lost count of the little things that could leave her shaking. There were smells and sounds that would leave her pressing close to him, either protectively or for reassurance.

And now, she was in a position where someone had had to save her from it again.

Lying down next to her, he almost immediately had a sinuous warm body pressed against his. A pair of muscular arms wrapped around his shoulders. He just held her, gently, as she allowed everything to slip past her control, letting it out in the arms of the one person she felt could utterly trust.

It barely took a couple of minutes for her walls to slam back into place. With a few deep breaths, Ahsoka buried her emotions. Lux knew full well they were going to bubble back to the surface soon enough.

The detectives came into the room first.

“Jedi Tano, we’re investigating a link between your case and the abduction yesterday.” Detective Poole said without pre-amble. “Traces of the drug that was in your system when you were admitted to hospital were also found at the scene of the abduction.”

Ahsoka blinked, before trilling softly in her throat.

“Can you remember everything that you ate or drank before you were drugged?”

“The only thing I had was a Jet Juice, detective.” Ahsoka replied. “The grox-fondler who served it to me must have… I…” Lux allowed Ahsoka to resume her python impersonation, holding her gently.

“Is she OK?” Detective Bordey asked, looking down at the togruta.

“She’s going to be, when she stops being more stubborn than a ronto, Detective.” Lux said, earning a reproving squeeze from Ahsoka. “Easy, ‘Soka.” He whispered. “You’re safe. I’m here.”

After a couple of minutes of quiet whimpering, Ahsoka dragged herself back together.

“I… can’t remember much after that.” She admitted, her tone shifting a little, and her voice becoming stronger.

Lux winced. He knew that she was lying. That this was another memory that would torment her for years. And he accepted that. He would support her through it.

Then a pair of Rutian twi’leks stepped through the doors.

“Master Jedi?” They asked, looking at Ahsoka with raw hope shining in their eyes. “Can you help us find our daughter?”

“I… I’m not a Jedi anymore.” Ahsoka admitted. “But I will help you.”

Lux wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she looked up, hearing a different tone in her voice to the one he’d been hearing since she came back into his life. She sounded confident, assertive and controlled, like the Jedi Padawan he’d first fallen in love with.

“’Soka…” he warned, cautiously.

She responded with a highly mature sticking out of her tongue.

The twi’leks had already left the room, clutching each other in sudden hope. The detectives moved in, datapads in hand.

A few minutes of conversation established that Ahsoka’s memory hadn’t improved, that she remembered little about her attacker, and that she’d chosen a bar based on how rough it looked. The officers exchanged looks at that, before putting their datapads away.

“Thank you for your time, Jedi Tano.” Detective Bordey said, before walking out of the hospital room, following her colleague.

With her shoulders resting against him, Lux could feel the sudden coil of excited energy rippling through Ahsoka. Her lekku were twitching slightly, in a side-to-side flick that reminded him of the tail of a predatory cat.

“Can I get out of here yet?” She asked him.

“I’ll ask the doctors.” Lux said. “The windows don’t open.”

Ahsoka grinned at him.

“No.” He said, suddenly feeling that he was the adult in the room.

A sudden movement brought the Togruta around, and she went from lying next to him to pressed against him. A set of sharp, carnivorous teeth nibbled his earlobe, and a tongue flicked out under his ear. Rolling to face her, Lux put both arms around Ahsoka's body, and kissed her. Then he pulled back slightly.

“Not here, Ahsoka. Not in a hospital.”

Ahsoka growled slightly, but Lux’s expression told her not to push it. She snuggled closer, though, just taking pleasure in being close to him.

Which proved to be very fortunate about a minute later, when the door to Ahsoka’s room opened.

“I thought Anakin was the only Jedi sleeping with a senator.” A painfully familiar, Coruscanti accented voice teased.


	7. Chapter 7

“Master Obi-Wan?” Ahsoka said, her voice running through several emotions. “What are…” she paused, before suddenly erupting from the bed. She froze for a moment as her feet landed on the floor, before lunging forward, her hand describing an arc intersecting his face. With the speed and timing of a Jedi Master, he swayed backwards, allowing the blow to miss by a few centimetres.

“STAND DOWN!” Obi-Wan Kenobi ordered, raising his voice significantly as Ahsoka came back around again, swinging a series of increasingly wild punches as she tried to connect with him. He effortlessly evaded each blow, before finally catching her hand and with a single movement, dumped her on the floor before holding her there in a wristlock.

“Finished?” He asked, calmly, as if she hadn’t just tried to attack him.

“Kriff you!” Ahsoka spat back, twisting her head to look over her shoulder at him. “You betrayed me!”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Ahsoka.” Obi-Wan replied.

“Screw you, and the horse you rode in on!” She shouted in huttese.

“Really, Padawan? I know Anakin taught you better than that.”

“Go hook up a power coupling with a gundark, and a rancor as well while you’re at it! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! Why did I have to have a useless master whose only interest was boning a senator?” She shouted, still in huttese.

“Ahsoka, Anakin sees you as his daughter, or possibly his little sister. He cares deeply about you.”

“Why did you turn on me? Why did the Jedi?”

He wasn’t even sure if she knew she was speaking in Mandalorian again. For a Jedi who’d spent three years around clone troopers, it was virtually a second language anyway.

“Because, Ahsoka, even the Jedi Council makes serious mistakes. And not trusting you was the second most serious mistake we ever made.”

“What was the first?” She asked, in basic.

“Allowing Sheev Palpatine to cause the Clone Wars.” Obi-Wan admitted to her. “Since his death… we’ve found a lot of answers to questions we didn’t realise we hadn’t been asking.”

“Such as?”

“Why the Clone Wars took place. The tactics are classic Sith, when you look closely. Palpatine took advantage of existing divisions within the Senate to gradually drive wedges between those that would become the Confederacy and those who would remain loyal to the Republic. I’ll be the first to admit that the system was corrupt, and that something needed to change. But only a Sith could take those fractures, and then, through drips of poison, create a war, and it took him decades to create those cracks, and drive them open.”

“And his goals?”

Obi-Wan gave Ahsoka a very stern look. “Anakin taught you better than that, Ahsoka. Can I let you up, yet?”

Ahsoka nodded, sullenly, clambering to her feet when Obi-Wan released the lock. “I know that he kept being voted more emergency powers as the war went on… he was creating those crises, wasn’t he?” she suddenly asked, crossing the room and sitting next to Lux, on the bed.

“We believe that he was.” Obi-Wan confirmed. “He was controlling both sides of the war. He knew everything that the senate did, and everything that the Confederacy did.”

“And the Jedi?”

Obi-Wan nodded. “We found evidence. Nothing that anyone should have noticed. There was a mis-aligned security camera on a spacescraper on the far side of the traffic lane that overlooked his office. We’re not sure what it was intended to look at, but it ended up looking at his office window. No-one knew it was there. And then, after what happened to Fives… Rex talked to Anakin. And Anakin asked some quiet questions in the 501st. It wasn’t long before he had a volunteer. And after that, with what we found out during the Siege of Coruscant… we weren’t going to take any chances. Taking him out directly was risky. The evidence from the camera was the final straw. Having caught him on camera talking to Dooku…”

Ahsoka nodded, slightly sick to her stomach. “We’re Jedi.” She objected.

“And we didn’t feel we had any other options. So, we lied. We cheated. We used the Force to help us eliminate dozens of his conspirators in a single night. We were all parties to the cold-blooded murder of our head of state. But the most damning thing of all… I think that the Jedi Order will live with it. And if they had to do it all over again, they would. Bariss was right about one thing, a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Republic.”

Ahsoka looked at him, absolutely aghast. “No.” she whispered. “No. No Jedi would do all of that.”

“Do you know why, when you walked through a clone barracks during a sleep-cycle, you always heard whimpering?” Obi-Wan asked a wide-eyed Ahsoka, who shook her head. “That wasn’t just dreams of the war. Shortly before he died, Fives claimed to have discovered some sort of conspiracy involving a chip in their brains, that was officially there to supress their aggression. It had another purpose as well. It was there so that when a specific order was given by the Chancellor, the clones, even our friends, would turn on us immediately and slaughter us.”

“So…”

“So, we defended ourselves.”

“Was everyone who died…”

“Yes.” Obi-Wan stated, as if he was carrying the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. “We made sure of that, before they died.”

Ahsoka just sat there, stunned, staring out of the window. She knew the Order had made compromises during the Clone Wars, but knowing they were party to… that… made her sick to her stomach.

“Will she be OK?” Obi-Wan looked at Lux as he spoke.

“Eventually.” Lux responded. “Why were you on Maika?”

Obi-Wan looked at Ahsoka for a moment, before tapping his commlink three times. “If there’s anything the Order can do…”

“I’ll let you know, Master Kenobi.”

“Oh, and by the way…” He handed Lux a small folder. “Anakin wanted me to give her these.”

“Are he and Senator Amidala sleeping at night again yet?” Although it wasn’t precisely public knowledge, anyone who frequented the senate knew full well who the father of Senator Amidala’s children was.

Obi-Wan tilted his head. “I have no idea what is in the folder.” He declared, solemnly. “Just give it to Ahsoka.”

“I will.”

Putting up the hood of his robe, Obi-Wan exited, with a nod to the pair on the bed.


	8. Chapter 8

Once the medical staff were entirely satisfied that Ahsoka wasn’t going to suffer an adverse reaction to the drug she’d been given, and that she was otherwise fine, they wasted little time in discharging her.

Walking out of the hospital, it wasn’t long before her hand infiltrated Lux’s. They gradually began walking closer together, ending up almost rubbing shoulders as they walked through the great glass lobby and out into the baking sun of the parking area. To Ahsoka’s surprised relief, the absurdly luxurious limo Lux had hired for their stay was waiting outside.

It was almost perfect.

And then, suddenly, a metallic creak and a flash of colour drew her attention to a bird cage, swaying in the light sea breeze. Her mind suddenly ripped her away from safe and comfortable and took her back to where she’d been anything but.

_Ground below._

_Sky above._

_Cage creaking in the wind_

_An avian on top, cawing and trying to peck at her._

_Meditating_

_It’s all going to be alright, Ahsoka… Skyguy and Master Kenobi are here with you. In through the nose, out through the mouth… nothing is going to happen to you. Especially nothing you don’t want to happen, Force, it won’t ever happen._

_“The Queen has promised, once the other Jedi is tamed, you will be mine, little Skug.” His thoughts wash over you like a tidal bore, and you can sense what he means by ‘mine’._

_Reaching out with the Force, gathering it behind the speaker’s legs. Suddenly lifting him into the air and over the edge of the roof. He spins, managing to catch edge of the roof with one hand, rather than fall to his death. You nearly killed him. Just because he threatened… that… and you… you nearly killed him._

_“You better hope that doesn’t happen…”_

_He stands up and activates your shock collar. Electricity runs through your body._

_You can’t reach the collar. Can’t stop it. Force, it hurts. It stops. You take a breath, and then it starts again._

She stumbled as she remembered it. But it wasn’t the pain that hit her the hardest. It wasn’t the sense of complete powerlessness she’d felt. It was the dark sense of power that’d run through her, as she tried to throw her tormenter from the roof. The knowledge that, if she chose… she could kill him, and there’d be nothing he could do about it. _Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will…_ She remembered that lecture from Master Yoda all too well.

Lux changed his grip, almost immediately, pulling her closer, and thinking reassuring thoughts. She didn’t quite cling to him, but she let him be there, be safe, be supportive.

Once they were in the limo, with the door closed, the environmental controls kicked in. Ahsoka’s lekku shivered slightly, and she snuggled close against him, taking comfort in him.

As soon as the speeder had lifted off and was heading for the hotel, Ahsoka slumped against Lux. All too quickly, the human could feel tears soaking into his shirt.

“’Soka?” he asked.

“I was proud to be a Jedi.” She sobbed. “I… I was proud of what I thought the Order stood for. Doing the right thing. Being loyal. Protecting good people from bad people.”

“And that’s exactly what they did.”

“They murdered dozens of people!”

“What do you think they’d have done to the Jedi if they had the chance?” Lux asked. “Do you think that they’d have exiled the Order to the Unknown Regions? Do you think they’d have simply made the Order obey more rules about what they could do? You heard what Master Kenobi said. They intended to exterminate the Jedi Order. They wanted to put a Sith with virtually unlimited power in charge of the Republic.”

“It’s still not right!” Ahsoka protested. “We’re not supposed to kill people in cold blood!”

Lux passed over her use of the word ‘we’ to refer to the Jedi Order. “Would you rather the Order was destroyed?” Lux challenged.

Ahsoka paused for a few seconds. “No…” she whispered.

They stayed silent the rest of the way back to their hotel.

Once they arrived at the resort, Lux helped Ahsoka back to the hotel room. It was less physically carrying, and more just gently guiding her there, and making sure she didn’t disappear in the direction of the hotel bar.

Instead, he guided her to the hot tub, and helped her out of her robes, before inserting her into it. With her safe, he extracted the relevant ingredients from the minibar to make her a triple jet juice, before slotting it into her hand. Once she had a drink, he went inside, leaving the Togruta more or less alone with her thoughts. He sat at the small table just inside the balcony, periodically replenishing Ahsoka’s jet juice when it ran low.

It took a few hours for the Togruta to come out of the fugue she’d gone into while processing the revelation from Obi-Wan. In that time, she got through three triple jet juices, enough alcohol that Lux might actually have worried, if he hadn’t known her. Although Ahsoka didn’t have a high tolerance for alcohol, she was experienced in using the Force to cleanse it from her system. How she’d developed that talent, he didn’t really want to know.

When she came in from the balcony, the sun was sitting close to the horizon, and the sky was gaining a purple tinge. She wasn’t holding herself like Ahsoka Tano, not sure what she is, or Ahsoka Tano, cantina server. She was holding herself, unconsciously, in the way that Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Padawan had. And it was a good look on her.

“Lux.” She said, with a grin. “Did you bring the bag with you?”

He winced, slightly, in sympathy. He wasn’t quite sure where she’d gotten the contents from, and he didn’t really want to ask. Handing her a leather holdall, he watched as she extracted a pair of swoop bike gauntlets, a pair of swoop boots and a GAR-issue vest, consisting of an thick layer of armorweave, a layer of durasteel chainmail, then a second layer of armorweave, with a padded backing. Strapping on the boots, then the vest, she dipped back into the bag, and extracted a leather longcoat, slipping it over her shoulders with a grin at Lux.

“Ahsoka…” He said. “What are you planning?”

“I thought that I’d go and get some answers for myself.”

“From whom?”

“Well, as they used the same stuff on me as they must have used elsewhere… I thought that bartender would be worth a talk.”

“And you’re wearing that, because?”

“In case he doesn’t want to talk.”

Lux shook his head. “I’m coming. Someone has to keep you out of trouble.”

“You wish, vegetables!”

“Ahsoka, the last thing I want to spend the next week doing is negotiating to get you out of a prison cell for starting a riot.”

Ahsoka glared at him.

“You’re getting my help whether you want it or not.”

“Fine.” She growled. “You can come. Just don’t get in the way.”

“I’m not planning to, you violently aggressive Jedi tyrant.”

Ahsoka grinned at him, before leading the way to the turbolift, into the lobby, and claimed a swoop bike for them. Lux clambered on behind her, before locking his arms around her waist, knowing that he was going to be clinging on for dear life. It was less to do with Ahsoka’s own inclinations, and a lot to do with those of Anakin Skywalker. He’d taught her to ride swoops, and most of his habits had rubbed off on his impressionable student.

Sure enough, within seconds, Ahsoka was taking corners at waist-height, turning the bike ninety degrees from horizontal in the process, as Lux held on very tightly. She didn’t seem to be able to help herself. Her piloting, while surprisingly safe, was also terrifying for passengers.

When the bike touched down, he dismounted gratefully, unsurprised to see a flicker of brown disappearing around a corner behind them.

Ahsoka set off purposefully, marching towards the bar. Lux followed, his longer strides balancing out the Togruta’s quicker steps and general anger. It wasn’t long before she was barging through the doors.

He leant up against the wall by the door and extracted his commlink. She was probably going to be a while.


	9. Chapter 9

Once she was inside the bar, Ahsoka took two centring breaths, finding herself in the Force, and then crossed over to the counter.

“Hey!” she said, raising her voice. “What do you know about sleemos who spike drinks around here?”

The bartender looked up startled, and she was almost pleased to see him doing a double take as he recognised her. “I don’t know anything!” he retorted. “Now, get out of here!”

Ahsoka smiled, baring a set of teeth that, by the standards of most humanoid species, were an offensive weapon in their own right. “Sure you don’t. Now, why don’t you tell me what you don’t know. Right now. And then we’ll have done things the easy way.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His hand dipped below the bar.

Ahsoka’s shot out, and grabbed his collar, pulling him towards her.

“Talk.” She growled, her teeth an inch from his nose, growling in her throat, clearly betraying the origins of the Togruta species as apex predators.

And then, as negotiations conducted according to the teachings of Anakin Skywalker tend to do, it all kicked off. One of the patrons swung a stool at her back, which Ahsoka countered by ducking low, pulling the bartender into the path of twenty kilos of wood, before letting go and twisting around to face her attacker.

Recovering the stool, the heavily tattooed human, wearing a leather vest, took another swing, to which Ahsoka replied by twisting aside, dropping the bartender, and punching her attacker with everything she had, abetted by a padded, heavy gauntlet.

He staggered back, and, at roughly that point, most of the people in the bar lunged forwards to join the festivities. Some of them went for each other, taking the chances to settle old scores.

Others, however, lunged for the light-footed Togruta who’d started the fight. Ducking under a swung fist, Ahsoka responded with a blow of her own to her attacker’s chin, sending him staggering backwards.

A flurry of kicks, punches, knees and elbows won her free of the initial crush, before a flying glass kissed her left montral. Grinning, she sprang backwards, flipping over in a handspring, before landing by a pool table.

A quick pair of twists with the Force liberated the handles of a pair of cues, and she flipped them around, holding them like batons.

Then she went on the attack.

Two quick blows felled the nearest pair of what she now was able to identify as members of a swoop bike gang, sending them staggering backwards, before they slumped to the floor.

A twist and sidestep took her just out of line of a flying stool, before she slammed a fist, using the cue handle to add weight, into the face of a man about to slam a table into her.

A quick flick with the Force threw the table into three more bikers, before she drove into the mass, slamming her foot into the chest of the first goon to challenge her, which gave slightly with a faint crunch, sending him toppling backwards with several broken ribs.

Her batons lashed out, catching two more of them in the gut as she twisted underneath a swinging arm, then slapped aside the trailing hand with her baton, which connected with the crack of breaking bones.

Trading blows left and right, the Togruta quickly dispatched another of her opponents with a baton to the skull, before the silvery gleam of a knife missed her nose by centimetres.

She barely contorted herself out of the way of a second slash, then a third. A hum that, in such a fight, only a togruta would have noticed, told her she was facing a live vibroblade.

She didn’t waste time. Darting forwards, narrowly evading another slash, she dropped into a roll as the knife came in at cheek-level and had no compunctions at all about the siting of her strike.

The baton in her left-hand slammed into the knifeman’s groin, and her foot lashed out, sending the knife soaring across the bar, where it embedded itself in the wall.

A stool whistled past as she kicked him in the head, and she sprung out of her half-crouch, practically rebounding off of the ceiling as she rejoined the battle.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

From his vantage point, Obi-Wan crossed the street, once he noticed that Lux was alone.

“Let me guess…” he began, before the sound of a table slamming into multiple people, then crashing to the floor, was heard, along with the yells of a bar fight. “Aggressive negotiations?”

“And stress relief.” Lux commented, as he heard a glass smash. “She wants answers.”

“I don’t know what Anakin taught her.” Obi-Wan sighed. “But I do know that I definitely taught him how to negotiate without resorting to violence.”

The wall shook slightly as someone slammed against it, and Lux stuck out a leg as the barman ran out of the door, showing signs of Ahsoka-induced trauma. As he slammed into the pavement, Obi-Wan, courteously, cushioned his fall with the Force, before lifting him into the air, quite casually, and looping the back of his jacket over a street illuminator pole.

“Shall we wait for her to finish her fun?” he asked Lux.

“She wouldn’t forgive me spoiling it.”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Rolling under a flailed bar stool, Ahsoka couldn't contain the feral grin on her face. She knew it wasn't quite the Jedi way to enjoy bar fights, but, well, she _had_ been trained by Anakin Skywalker.

Rising into a half-crouch, the Togruta replied to the stool with a baton-strike to the stool-wielding Houk’s knee, before bounding up off the floor and slamming her batons into the side of his head.

The paired blows sent her opponent crashing to the ground, Ahsoka surfing on top of him, before using the momentum to project herself into a Zabrak running towards her with a stun baton.

Parrying it aside in flight, the Togruta drove her left hand baton into the man’s crotch, before slamming the other into his stomach, before spinning around and driving a blow into the side of a human’s head, while her other stick parried a cosh he was swinging at her skull.

One of her boots lashed out behind her, without more than an instant of warning, catching another human in the solar plexus, the force of the blow stopping him in his tracks and sending her staggering forwards, which she quickly turned into a handspring.

She used her momentum to slam her boots into the chest of one of the last goons, before noticing that the bartender was nowhere to be seen. Her heels momentarily kissed the floor.

And then she twisted aside, narrowly avoiding a bolt of blue energy, which, instead, slammed into an unfortunate fruit machine, practically vaporising it in a heartbeat.

She automatically started to count in her head, scanning the bar, and instantly spotting the large human in swoop leathers who had just tried to kill her with a disruptor.

_2… got to take him out, now._

_3…_ Ahsoka lunged forwards, drawing on the Force, and attuning her body to it, allowing it to slow her perceptions and increase the twitch speed of her muscles.

 _4…_ Her arm cocked back, faster than any normal sentient could have hoped to match, before arcing forwards, palm outstretched, sending a wave of Force Energy out ahead of it, enough to throw the biker into a wall, and dislodge the disruptor, sending it hurtling into a corner.

Rather than lunge for it, Ahsoka continued her charge, before breaking one of her batons over his head, sending him crumbling to the floor.

An instant later, Lux burst through the door, blaster drawn, half a pace behind Obi-Wan, in his preferred Soresu guard, saber drawn.

“Sloppy, Padawan.” He commented.

Ahsoka was in his face, bristling, in an instant. “You could have helped!”

Obi-Wan didn’t respond for a few moments. “Would you have let me?” He asked, holding his ground.

Ahsoka shuffled slightly.

“I see.”

“Did you see where…?” she began, glancing around, and noticing a distinct lack of unconscious drink-spiking sleemos next to the bar.

“The bartender went?” Obi-Wan finished. “He’s hanging around outside.”

Ahsoka had to restrain the urge to grin at him, for a brief moment.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a bit longer than I intended. Hopefully, it's at least worth reading.

Reaching out with the Force, Ahsoka detached the bartender from the lamppost, before suspending him just off the floor. Lux fished something out of his pocket, which made a bloop as he pressed the top of it.

"Talk!" She growled, angrily. She could feel the lecture from Obi-Wan, but he said nothing, and just watched as her eyes turned from their usual cobalt to grey steel.

"I don't know anything really. Some guy in armour came in and told me he knew my business was struggling and wondered if I'd like to make a few credits. You've seen the sort of customers I get. They pay the bills, but money is always tight, especially when they break the furniture. He gave me a bottle of something, and told me that if any girls came in, especially non-humans, who no-one was going to miss, give it to them, and put them in the stockroom. They were always gone the next day, and there was always a bag of dataries in their place!"

Ahsoka took a breath. "You..."

"I recorded everything, Ahsoka." Lux told her, recognising that she was about to go ballistic. "We can detain him."

Ahsoka's teeth showed, for an instant, before the whoop of a police airspeeder settling to ground caused the tension to drain out of the Togruta.

Letting the sleemo drop to the floor, Ahsoka engulfed Lux, for a few seconds, before stepping away as two familiar humans approached.

"Jedi, Jedi, Senator." Poole greeted them, ignoring the muffled grunt as Detective Bordey assisted the bartender into handcuffs.

"There's a bottle somewhere in the bar." Ahsoka told him, without preamble.

"It should contain Ahechymphuxyl Goborgyde, if it's the same stuff we detected metabolites from in your system." Poole said. "Officer Myers, Officer Best, go and bag up the bar-stock." He instructed two of the uniformed officers who'd arrived with them. "Officers Patterson, Hooper and Sergeant Dumas, go and round up the patrons."

The five headed inside, and began hauling the assorted barflies, bikers and petty criminals out of the bar, while putting the various bottles of liquor into individual sealed bags.

"I take it you had some questions."

Ahsoka nodded. "I wanted to find out why. It turns out that the bartender was being paid for girls. Especially non-humans."

"I see. We'll need to talk down at the station. Master Jedi?" He asked, turning to Obi-Wan. "Is there a particular reason you're on Maika?"

"I was sent to monitor Ahsoka." He replied. "The council are concerned about her."

Standing next to Lux, Ahsoka snorted at that. "You mean, after they refused to believe or trust me, and threw me out the Order, then gave me a bunch of platitudes about the Force... they're actually concerned about me?"

"They are." Obi-Wan confirmed. "We know we made a mistake, Ahsoka."

"You bet you did!"

Lux squeezed her shoulders at that point, trying to head-off the potential for her to launch into round two with Obi-Wan.

"I'm sorry." He repeated.

Ahsoka snorted and proceeded to shove her tongue down a rather surprised Lux's throat, clamping on with the force of a limpet.

Obi-Wan sighed.

"Is there anything I can do to help you with your enquiries?" He asked Poole, watching the stream of miscreants, many of whom he suspected had run afoul of Ahsoka, were dragged or carried out of the bar.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Back at the hotel, Ahsoka stripped out of her leathers, releasing the almost reflexive use of tapas to keep herself comfortable with a sigh. Lux couldn't help admiring, as usual, the sleekly muscled body underneath, and the way all of her curves flowed together.

"Careful, Veggie." Ahsoka teased without turning around. "You're going to need to breathe."

Lux grinned, as he poured her a cocktail, then himself. He might have hoped to drink the first one, but it took flight almost immediately after being garnished. "It's not like I'm sharing a hotel room with an incredibly beautiful Jedi, who has my undivided attention at all times."

Ahsoka smirked, and downed her drink, before pouncing on Lux, giving him just enough warning to put his own drink down on a table. "Show me." She whispered, before growling as Lux's hand found a bruise under the strap of her bikini top. She almost whimpered for a second, before Lux kissed her, forcefully.

"You don't have to go straight back there." Lux told her, taking a lekku tip in his hand, and flicking back and forth across the sensitive nub at the base. "You're here, with me. You're safe. I love you."

And then the tears came again. As Lux pulled her close, the sound of waves and avian calls was briefly drowned out by a bass rumble, as if a starfighter was flying low over the hotel. It faded quickly, before Lux pinned Ahsoka to the bed, his mouth roaming across her body.

A few minutes later, with her legs wrapped around his hips, Lux jerked his head away from hers, as the turbolift door chimed. Ahsoka's reaction was almost instantaneous. The covers whipped across them, providing a vestige of modesty, before the turbolift door opened.

Ahsoka squeaked as Anakin Skywalker, wearing an incongruous flowery shirt, stepped through the door. "Master! A little privacy!"

"Snips? What..." Anakin sputtered, noticing the pair of heads, one of them human, and rather mussed, as well as the sky-blue glow of his former Padawan's montrals, and the sweat glistening on both of their faces. "SNIPS!"

"I'm not a Jedi anymore, Skyguy, and I'm allowed to make my own kriffing decisions!" Ahsoka responded, hotly. "And I've chosen that I want to make this one with Lux!"

Anakin sputtered incoherently.

"It's not exactly news that we like each other!" Ahsoka continued. "So what business is it of yours?"

"I didn't expect to..."

Ahsoka stuck her tongue out. "Master, that turbolift requires a key, and I didn't feel you arrive on Maika."

Anakin had the grave to look somewhat sheepish at that.

"So, other than..."

"Obi-Wan mentioned that you were here, and that it was really peaceful."

"So, you decided to come and disturb it?"

"Something like that." Anakin responded with a grin. "I'm sure that Padmé will be very happy if you join us on the terrace in an hour."

"We'll be there, Skyguy." Ahsoka said. "Now, if you don't awfully mind locking the door on your way out..."

Anakin grinned, before heading for the turbolift. "You know, Snips... when I was first assigned you, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with you. But now... you were exactly what I needed."

He grinned, and then stepped into the turbolift. The tell-tale on the door turned red, then switched off, indicating that the turbolift wasn't in place.

"So…" Ahsoka growled, reaching across under the covers. "Where were we?"

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is welcome.


End file.
